Douglas Cochrane, 12th Earl of Dundonald

Cochrane was the second but eldest surviving son of Thomas Cochrane, 11th Earl of Dundonald, by Louisa Harriet Mackinnon, daughter of William Alexander Mackinnon. Thomas Cochrane, 1st Baron Cochrane of Cults, was his younger brother.[1] He was educated at Eton College.[2]

Cochrane was commissioned into the Life Guards in July 1870,[3] and was promoted to lieutenant the following year and captain in 1878.[4] He served in the Nile Expedition,[3] the Desert March and the Relief of Khartoum in 1885.[5] He was appointed Commanding Officer of 2nd Life Guards in 1895.[3]

He served in the Second Boer War and in November 1899 he was appointed Commander of the Mounted Brigade, part of the South Natal Field Force.[3] He took part in the Relief of Ladysmith in February 1900,[3] although his South African troops, unimpressed by his leadership, referred to him as "Dundoodle".[6]

In April 1902, it was announced that Lord Dundonald would be appointed General Officer Commanding the Militia of Canada,[4] the senior military officer in Canada. He left Liverpool on 15 July,[7] and arrived in Quebec and Ottawa later the same month to take up his position.[8] He and his family stayed at Crichton Lodge in Rockcliffe, Ottawa.[9] He served in Canada for two years.

He later served in the First World War as Chairman of the Admiralty Committee on Smoke Screens in 1915.[3]

Lord Dundonald married Winifred Bamford-Hesketh, daughter of Robert Bamford-Hesketh, in 1878. For many years, the family lived at Gwrych Castle in North Wales, the seat of the Bamford-Hesketh family. The Countess of Dundonald did not accompany her husband to Canada. They had two sons and three daughters:[12]

• Lady Grizel Winifred Louise Cochrane (1880–1976), who married Lt.-Col. Hon. Ralph Gerard Alexander Hamilton, Master of Belhaven (1883–1918), only son of Alexander Hamilton, 10th Lord Belhaven and Stenton, in 1904. He was killed during the Battle of Amiens.[12]
• Thomas Hesketh Douglas Blair Cochrane, 13th Earl of Dundonald (1886–1958), a Capt. of the Scots Guards who served as a Representative Peer for Scotland from 1941 to 1955.[12]
• Lady Jean Alice Cochrane (1887–1955), who married Herbert Hervey, 5th Marquess of Bristol in 1914. They divorced in 1933 and she married Capt. Sir Peter Drummond MacDonald, a son of Ronald MacDonald, in December 1933.[12]
• Lady Marjorie Gwendoline Elsie Cochrane (b. 1889), who married Owsley Vincent Fudell Rowley, eldest son of George Fudell Rowley in 1917. They divorced in 1932.[12]
• Hon. Douglas Robert Hesketh Roger Cochrane (1893–1942), who married Enid Marion Davis, a daughter of Miles Leonard Davies, in 1918.[12]

His wife died in January 1924. Lord Dundonald died at his home in Wimbledon in April 1935, aged 82, and was succeeded in the earldom by his eldest son, Thomas.[1] He is buried in Achnaba Churchyard, Ardchattan near Benderloch, Lorne, Argyll & Bute. As his eldest son died unmarried and without issue, he was succeeded by his nephew, Ian Douglas Leonard Cochrane as the 14th Earl of Dundonald.[12]

• Earl of Dundonald
• Clan Cochrane

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Douglas Cochrane, 12th Earl of Dundonald.

• Farrar-Hockley, General Sir Anthony (1975). Goughie. London: Granada. ISBN -0246640596.